Thursday, July 10, 2025

Engaging the Mozambique Terrorists

Through the report of Brigadier Nzdinge of Botswana Defence Force who is the Deputy Task Force Commander for SAMIM, the SADC force has by far made reasonable gains regarding their mission in that country. And for a reason, the gains that have been often hailed by Rwandan Forces in Mozambique has somewhat dried up.

This operation has become more political than a military mission. I have earlier written why the Rwandans were first on the ground in Cabo Delgado. It is simply that France has interfered with the deployment of the SADC Force and instead brought in the Rwandan military to act as their proxies.

The interests of France are particularly on the assets of Total Petroleum Company which has a large investment in that province. Total is exploiting gas there and they have access to one of the world’s largest known gas reserves.

The success of the military operations in that country is a good sign that they are doing the best they can under very difficult circumstances. In the first place, Mozambique went forth and back vacillating on allowing the SADC Forces to deploy in that country. 

As mentioned earlier in another article regarding this operation, the government of Mozambique started to grow cold feet when it came to the point of them signing SOFFA (Status of Foreign Forces Agreement). The political entanglements are massive around this issue and this is why I have mentioned that the operation has now turned out to be more political than a military mission.

SADC has a 3 000 strong brigade force that has been trained and equipped to play a role in the region more or less in the context of how ECOWAS deploys its force in times of hostilities in their region.

Let it be known that the SADC brigade was created right after the crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1998. Zimbabwe became the only country that was able and allowed to deploy its troops in that country. The crisis in the DRC caused a serious political rift in the SADC region and specifically between South Africa and Zimbabwe.

It was thereafter that a SADC brigade force was created with clearly outlined protocols on how they could deploy in one of the countries in the region. Mozambique has been a partner from the very beginning and they have signed the agreement knowingly and understanding the consequences of penning it.

However, it is highly surprising that when the situation in Cabo Delgado developed, Mozambique was choosy on who could provide them with military assistance. They identified South Africa and Zimbabwe as their preferred bidders. The two countries turned down the request because they fully understood the protocols that have been agreed in the SADC platform.

The SADC Brigade Force has in the last two decades invested heavily in training throughout the region for such a time as this. This has been done through several military exercises that involved the army and air force. The first such exercise was held in South Africa and was known as Exercise Blue Crane. The next one was in Zimbabwe and was known as Exercise Hungwe which literally translates to blue crane as well, a bird which is threatened by extinction in southern Africa.

Botswana has been a host to such massive exercises and the famous one was Exercise Thokgamo held in the Ngamiland District. This was a peacekeeping exercise conducted as training for any eventuality in the SADC region. This was a massive exercise that also had a significant economic effect on the local economy of Maun and the region.

The next exercise that Botswana hosted was known as Exercise Blue Okavango which was held around the famous Okavango Delta. It was here that the SADC forces were simulating a humanitarian crisis and they were ferrying supplies from Gaborone to the area around the clock to test their logistics capabilities.

And why does it appear like Mozambique is totally oblivious of this arrangement when they have all along participated in these exercises? Like I mentioned earlier, this issue is marred by politics than anything. And France has found a good opportunity to wedge themselves in.

One of the countries that Mozambique was hesitant to see their boots on the ground is Botswana. In the past we’ve had a signed military pact with Mozambique and this is why Botswana was training their forces. I personally have participated in the last Company Commander’s Course that involved officers of FADM and BDF in 2006.

This arrangement was repealed by the Khama administration under the pretext that it was too expensive to sustain it. This upset the government of Mozambique and it seems they are still holding a grudge against our country. But apparently some people highly placed in the echelons of the government of Botswana were not getting what they wanted from the agreement.

SAMIIM (Southern African Military Intervention in Mozambique) has done a commendable job and I don’t see how the troops and their commanders would not be promoted upon their return. Militarily speaking, they have been fighting blind. They were blind folded by the lack of cooperation by the host government.

When it turned out that the French greased the hands of the leaders of Mozambique, the area assigned to the SADC Force was all of a sudden handed over to the Rwandan military. The SADC commanders who had been planning on deploying in Cabo Delgado only learnt on France24 that the Rwandan forces were on the ground and making advances.

They now had to deploy further south and their current gains are as a result that the terrorists are fleeing from the hotspot of Cabo Delgado and SAMIIM is making contact by chance with the fleeing terrorists. They have very little intelligence of the movement of the terror group and this is in design by France. This is why I said SAMIIM is fighting blind.

France has deliberately embedded journalists from the France24 television channel and this is the reason why other international news channels are dependent on this particular news media outlet for their own news. All this happens as a design to blind fold and discredit SAMIIM.

RELATED STORIES

Read this week's paper